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Binominals and construct marking

  • Denis Creissels
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Binominal Lexemes in Cross-Linguistic Perspective
This chapter is in the book Binominal Lexemes in Cross-Linguistic Perspective

Abstract

Construct marking, defined as a particular technique of marking the relationships between head nouns and their dependents, is not limited to the few language families (Semitic, Nilotic, and Oceanic) in which the term ‘construct’ is traditionally used to describe adnominal possession, and construct marking defined in purely formal terms can be used for semantic types of noun modification other than adnominal possession. The use of construct marking is however particularly widespread in adpossessive construction. In the languages that make use of construct marking in their adpossessive construction, it is common that the same markers also have a more or less productive use in the formation of binominals, and if changes affect the adpossessive construction, it may happen that a former construct marker that has ceased to be used in adpossessive construction persists exclusively in binominal formation.

Abstract

Construct marking, defined as a particular technique of marking the relationships between head nouns and their dependents, is not limited to the few language families (Semitic, Nilotic, and Oceanic) in which the term ‘construct’ is traditionally used to describe adnominal possession, and construct marking defined in purely formal terms can be used for semantic types of noun modification other than adnominal possession. The use of construct marking is however particularly widespread in adpossessive construction. In the languages that make use of construct marking in their adpossessive construction, it is common that the same markers also have a more or less productive use in the formation of binominals, and if changes affect the adpossessive construction, it may happen that a former construct marker that has ceased to be used in adpossessive construction persists exclusively in binominal formation.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Exploring complex lexemes cross-linguistically 1
  4. Part 1: Form (morphosyntactic strategies)
  5. Defining and typologizing binominal lexemes 21
  6. Binominals and construct marking 73
  7. Compounds and other nominal modifier constructions in Pama-Nyungan languages 103
  8. New types of binominal lexeme in Anindilyakwa (Australia) 153
  9. Binominals in Äiwoo: Compounds, possessive constructions, and transitional cases 181
  10. NN.gen and NArel juxtapositions in Polish: Syntactic schemas employed in building phrasal nouns 213
  11. The derivational use of classifiers in Western Amazonia 237
  12. Binominals denoting instruments: A contrastive perspective 277
  13. Part 2: Meaning (semantic relations)
  14. Hatcher-Bourque: Towards a reusable classification of semantic relations 303
  15. Binominal strategies and semantic correlations in Turkic languages 355
  16. A classification of compounds in Karachay-Balkar 381
  17. Binominal lexemes in Moksha and Hill Mari 401
  18. Part 3: Acquisition
  19. Binominals and potential competitors in language development: Evidence from Swedish 429
  20. List of contributors 463
  21. Index of Subjects 465
  22. Index of Languages 471
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110673494-003

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Exploring complex lexemes cross-linguistically 1
  4. Part 1: Form (morphosyntactic strategies)
  5. Defining and typologizing binominal lexemes 21
  6. Binominals and construct marking 73
  7. Compounds and other nominal modifier constructions in Pama-Nyungan languages 103
  8. New types of binominal lexeme in Anindilyakwa (Australia) 153
  9. Binominals in Äiwoo: Compounds, possessive constructions, and transitional cases 181
  10. NN.gen and NArel juxtapositions in Polish: Syntactic schemas employed in building phrasal nouns 213
  11. The derivational use of classifiers in Western Amazonia 237
  12. Binominals denoting instruments: A contrastive perspective 277
  13. Part 2: Meaning (semantic relations)
  14. Hatcher-Bourque: Towards a reusable classification of semantic relations 303
  15. Binominal strategies and semantic correlations in Turkic languages 355
  16. A classification of compounds in Karachay-Balkar 381
  17. Binominal lexemes in Moksha and Hill Mari 401
  18. Part 3: Acquisition
  19. Binominals and potential competitors in language development: Evidence from Swedish 429
  20. List of contributors 463
  21. Index of Subjects 465
  22. Index of Languages 471
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